Much work has been accomplished of late in providing improved filters for smoking products, such as cigarettes. In general, the effect of such filters is to materially reduce the amount of total particulate matter transmitted with the smoke from the burning tobacco to the smoker. While many of these filtration developments are quite effective, they cannot be used, practically, as the smoke which is ultimately delivered to the smoker is so devoid of those materials which provide satisfaction to the smoker that they are not salable.
It has long been known that certain additives to tobacco can increase the perceived strength of the tobacco smoke. However, the materials of the prior art, particularly alkaline inorganic salts, adversely affected the taste of the tobacco smoke and thus were of little value. These alkaline salts also tended to degrade the tobacco over the storage periods normally encountered and, thus, provided little benefit.